I-Squared Equals I'm Screwed: new assault on STEM workers

[eridani]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stan-sorscher/i-squared-immigration_b_2834419.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications

This January, Senators Hatch and Klobuchar introduced The Immigration Innovation Act, known as "I-Squared." It will triple the number of foreign temporary workers from about 800,000 to over 2.3 million. This will distort the labor market for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), which has only 4 million workers all told. I-Squared will seriously depress the domestic STEM labor market.

Figure 1 shows increasing pressure that the H-1B program for temporary high-tech workers puts on the STEM labor market. H-1B workers in our labor force already dominate the annual graduation rate of 150,000 students from all U.S. engineering schools combined including about 20,000 bachelors, masters and PhD graduates in computing.

Roughly 130-150,000 initial H-1B visas are issued each year. Tens of thousands of foreign workers use other temporary visa programs, or stay in the workforce while they pursue permanent status.

Employers argue that they cannot find enough domestic workers. On the other hand, acceptance rates on job offers are above 90%, which means employers enjoy a market advantage, while most students will accept whatever is offered. Many recent college graduates and mid-career unemployed STEM workers are unemployed or underemployed and STEM occupations show no upward wage pressure.